Abstract
While much of the current research on facial recognition justifiably focuses on the issues of privacy, discrimination, and ownership, a broader theoretical discourse on the mode of the datafied portrait in the context of social systems is lacking.
I propose that the datafied portrait is the digital objectification of what Cheney-Lippold terms the “datafied-self” (Cheney-Lippold 2017). My conceptualization of the datafied portrait as a digital object follows Yuk Hui’s definition of a digital object as, “objects that take shape on a screen or hide in the back end of a computer program, composed of data and metadata regulated by structures or schemes” (Hui 2016).
As a digital object, the datafied portrait is the product of an ensemble of data surveillance tools and techniques (such as facial recognition and other biometric tools, online behavior tracking, and the exalted symbiosis of the internet of things).
If we consider the datafied portrait as a digital object, then the portrait exists as an indeterminate, until it is actualised. Actualisation comes through judgement and action taken based on the portrait. The datafied portrait exists in a recurrent state of algorithmic re-cognition, conditioned by corporate and government variables, until it is determined by the act of recognition, which is conditioned by culture. This ensemble exists in what Shoshana Zuboff terms, “surveillance capitalism” (Zuboff 2019).
Functioning within the system of surveillance capitalism, the datafied portrait produced through data recognition holds value. The datafied portrait as digital object holds value as information currency – mined and traded by governments and corporations. As a representation, the datafied portrait is a currency of exclusion and inclusion. It functions as an acknowledgment, an identification, a perception of existence, a realization, a token of appreciation. It is the basis on which access can be granted or denied, rights can be bestowed or revoked. Indeed, the datafied portrait is a currency of citizenship itself.
What happens when citizenship is bought and sold, traded and negotiated in the black box of surveillance capitalism? May exclusion open a place for resistance?
My current research in the School of Creative Media at City University in Hong Kong focuses on the function of facial recognition in systems of control and surveillance. Using China’s Social Credit System as a case study, I explore how the datafied portrait is a currency of citizenship, and how exclusion as a point of inflection maybe a mode of resistance.
I propose that the datafied portrait is the digital objectification of what Cheney-Lippold terms the “datafied-self” (Cheney-Lippold 2017). My conceptualization of the datafied portrait as a digital object follows Yuk Hui’s definition of a digital object as, “objects that take shape on a screen or hide in the back end of a computer program, composed of data and metadata regulated by structures or schemes” (Hui 2016).
As a digital object, the datafied portrait is the product of an ensemble of data surveillance tools and techniques (such as facial recognition and other biometric tools, online behavior tracking, and the exalted symbiosis of the internet of things).
If we consider the datafied portrait as a digital object, then the portrait exists as an indeterminate, until it is actualised. Actualisation comes through judgement and action taken based on the portrait. The datafied portrait exists in a recurrent state of algorithmic re-cognition, conditioned by corporate and government variables, until it is determined by the act of recognition, which is conditioned by culture. This ensemble exists in what Shoshana Zuboff terms, “surveillance capitalism” (Zuboff 2019).
Functioning within the system of surveillance capitalism, the datafied portrait produced through data recognition holds value. The datafied portrait as digital object holds value as information currency – mined and traded by governments and corporations. As a representation, the datafied portrait is a currency of exclusion and inclusion. It functions as an acknowledgment, an identification, a perception of existence, a realization, a token of appreciation. It is the basis on which access can be granted or denied, rights can be bestowed or revoked. Indeed, the datafied portrait is a currency of citizenship itself.
What happens when citizenship is bought and sold, traded and negotiated in the black box of surveillance capitalism? May exclusion open a place for resistance?
My current research in the School of Creative Media at City University in Hong Kong focuses on the function of facial recognition in systems of control and surveillance. Using China’s Social Credit System as a case study, I explore how the datafied portrait is a currency of citizenship, and how exclusion as a point of inflection maybe a mode of resistance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 19 Jun 2019 |
| Event | Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar 2019 (SSSS 2019): SMART SURVEILLANCE? - Queen's University, Kingston, Canada Duration: 17 Jun 2019 → 21 Jun 2019 https://www.sscqueens.org/events/surveillance-studies-summer-seminar-2019 |
Seminar
| Seminar | Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar 2019 (SSSS 2019) |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | Kingston |
| Period | 17/06/19 → 21/06/19 |
| Internet address |